"In the sick-room be calm,
More gently and with care.
Lest any jar or sudden noise,
Come sharply unaware.
You cannot tell the harm.
The mischief it may bring,
To wake the sick one suddenly,
Besides the suffering.
The broken sleep excites
Fresh pain, increased distress;
The quiet slumber undisturb'd
Soothes pain and restlessness.
Sleep is the gift of God:
Oh! bear these words at heart,
'He giveth His beloved sleep,'
And gently do thy part."
[Footnote: Household verses on Health and Happiness. London: Jarrold and Sons. A most delightful little volume.]
If there be other children, let them be removed to a distant part of the house; or, if the disease be of an infectious nature, let them be sent away from home altogether.
In all illnesses—and bear in mind the following is most important advice—a child must be encouraged to try and make water, whether he ask or not, at least four times during the twenty-four hours; and at any other time, if he express the slightest inclination to do so. I have known a little fellow to hold his water, to his great detriment, for twelve hours, because either the mother bad in her trouble forgotten to inquire, or the child himself was either too ill or too indolent to make the attempt.
See that the medical man's directions are, to the very letter, carried out. Do not fancy that you know better than he does, otherwise you have no business to employ him. Let him, then, have your implicit confidence and your exact obedience. What you may consider to be a trifling matter, may frequently be of the utmost importance, and may sometimes decide whether the case shall end either in life or death!
Lice.—It is not very poetical, as many of the grim facts of every-day life are not, but, unlike a great deal of poetry, it is unfortunately too true that after a severe and dangerous illness, especially after a bad attack of fever, a child's head frequently becomes infested with vermin—with lice. It therefore behoves a mother herself to thoroughly examine, by means of a fine-tooth comb, [Footnote: Which fine-tooth comb ought not to be used at any other time except for the purpose of examination, as the constant use of a fine-tooth comb would scratch the scalp, and would encourage a quantity of scurf to accumulate.] her child's head, in order to satisfy her mind that there be no vermin there. As soon as he be well enough, he ought to resume his regular ablutions—that is to say, that he must go again regularly into his tub, and have his head every morning thoroughly washed with soap and water. A mother ought to be particular in seeing that the nurse washes the hair-brush at least once every week; if she does not do so, the dirty brush which had during the illness been used, might contain the "nits"—the eggs of the lice—and would thus propagate the vermin, as they will, when on the head of the child, soon hatch. If there be already lice on the head, in addition to the regular washing every morning with the soap and water, and after the head has been thoroughly dried, let the hair be well and plentifully dressed with camphorated oil—the oil being allowed to remain on until the next washing on the following morning. Lice cannot live in oil (more especially if, as in camphorated oil, camphor be dissolved in it), and as the camphorated oil will not, in the slightest degree, injure the hair, it is the best application that can be used. But as soon as the vermin have disappeared, let the oil be discontinued, as the natural oil of the hair is, at other times, the only oil that is required on the head.
The "nit"—the egg of the louse—might be distinguished from scurf (although to the naked eye it is very much like it in appearance) by the former fastening firmly on one of the hairs as a barnacle would on a rock, and by it not being readily brushed off as scurf would, which latter (scurf) is always loose.